Hubodometers are well known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 2,638,274 discloses a hubodometer which is extensively used to measure and indicate the elasped mileage travelled by various vehicles.
When existing hubodometers are applied to the wheels of railroad, highway, and off-road vehicles, they are subjected to abusive shocks and vibrations that greatly impair the useful life of these devices and also the accuracy of their readings. The replacement of a defective and inaccurate hubodometer is an expensive and time-consuming task.
Present hubodometer designs fail prematurely, in large part, because the casing containing the odometer assembly is not shock mounted with a weight and force balanced design, and also because the odometer indicator is not similarly balanced on its drive shaft. Because both the casing (and its contained structure) and the odometer indicator are not balanced, the forces generated by shocks and vibrations set up destructive torques.
Additionally, in many designs the hubodometer is supported on a cantilevered element, such as a projecting drive shaft. In these designs, the weight on the cantilevered element generates unbalanced forces that greatly shorten the operating life of the hubodometer.